Global Scans · UK · Weekly Summary

WHAT'S NEXT?: Achieving Brexit will dominate the UK's agenda up to and beyond 2020 with uncertainty rife until clear decisions are made on the form of Great Britain's future relationship with the EU and the rest of the world.

• [New] The UK Government has announced that it plans to introduce a total ban on access to social media for children under 16. Mishcon de Reya LLP
• [New] The UK could store enough green hydrogen in depleted North Sea oil and gas fields to meet future electricity demand for up to seven years. Electricity Info
• [New] Power demand could soon be even greater than predicted by DESNZ because of the growth of AI. / UK Electricity Info
• [New] Britain's electricity network will require up to £240bn of upgrades to support clean power targets, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has admitted. Electricity Info
• [New] Britain has tested new long-range weapons system that it could soon offer to Ukraine to hit Russian targets. The Independent
• [New] Reporting under the UK SRS is expected to become mandatory for all UK listed companies and potentially also for economically significant companies. Travers Smith
• [New] Net present value is just one part of the overall picture - crucially, an expanded Heathrow could support over 60,000 new local jobs and deliver £40bn of benefits to the UK. City AM
• [New] While 93% of UK bank executives believed they could keep operating in a significant outage, only 47% had carried out a single test around AI disruption, while 26% had not conducted any. The Guardian
• [New] Transport for London is considering whether to impose extra charges for SUVs in the UK capital, in part because of the greater risks they pose to others. The Guardian
• [New] Tropic Bioscience, a UK biotechnology company, is using CRISPR-Cas gene editing to develop Cavendish bananas resistant to Tropical Race 4, a fungal disease threatening global banana production. CRISPR Medicine
• [New] Drugs such as semaglutide and tirzepatide are transforming obesity treatment, but without affordable, healthy food and appropriate support, they could widen health inequalities in the UK. EurekAlert!
• [New] From September, ministers will embark on the biggest expansion of tagging in British history so that up to 40,000 former offenders will be monitored by tags and overseen by probation officers - a 40% increase from the 28,000 currently on tags. The Guardian
• [New] The public is at direct risk from unsupervised ex-offenders because probation officers in England and Wales are being asked to cope with excessive workloads, a union has said. The Guardian
• [New] This week, the UK announced a wide-ranging ban on social media that will soon block users from communicating or accessing information on apps such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat unless they prove that they are over the age of 16. The Guardian
• [New] The Met Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning for much of southern England and south-east Wales over the coming days - the most extreme heat warning the weather forecaster has issued for four years. The Guardian
• [New] As expected, the Bank of England kept the repo rate at 3.75%. / USA investing.com
• [New] Following a public survey, the Bank of England has decided that UK wildlife will be the focus of its new bank note series. Numismatic News
• [New] By rebuilding foreign and security policy links, the UK can address immediate global threats while fostering the trust necessary for eventual economic concessions. niesr
• [New] Britain will join forces with Japan to build mini nuclear reactors capable of powering factories, data centers and military bases. Electricity Info
• [New] Rolls-Royce will build mini nuclear power plants for Sweden in a major boost to the British engineering giant's ambitions in Europe. Electricity Info
• [New] If the Fed raises rates in 2026 while the Bank of England keeps them on hold, the divergence in monetary policy will push down the GBPUSD exchange rate and accelerate UK inflation. investing.com
• [New] If the UK fails to build domestic strengths in the AI value chain, even the high-productivity sectors will see profits flow overseas, leaving the UK as a net importer of AI services and exporter of lower value labour. GOV.UK
• [New] The opportunity for UK businesses to benefit from AI deployment is substantial, and AI-enabled gains are expected to become the main source of the UK's continued productivity growth. GOV.UK

Last updated: 23 June 2026